The 1980s will seem like a walk in the
park when compared to new global challenges, where annual
productivity increases of 6% may not be enough. A combination of
software, brains, and running harder will be needed to bring that
percentage up to 8% or 9%.

The world will not belong to 'managers'
or those who can make the numbers dance. The world will belong to
passionate, driven leaders – people who
not only have enormous amounts of energy but who can
energize those whom they
lead.

The essence of competitiveness is
liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is
important – and then get out of their way while they do it.

Again, your challenge is not just to
improve. It is to break the service paradigm in your industry or
market so that customers aren’t just
satisfied, they’re so shocked that they tell strangers on the
street how good you are.

We bring together the best ideas
–
turning the meetings of our top managers into intellectual orgies.

We've only been wealthy in this country
for 70 years. Who said we ought to have all this? Is it ordained?

Willingness to
change
is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into
total confusion for a while.

Jack Welch has been with the
General Electric Company (GE)
since 1960. Having taken GE with a market capitalization of about $12
billion, Jack Welch turned it into one of the largest and most admired
companies in the world, with a market value of about $500 billion, when he
stepped down as its CEO 20 years later, in 2000. Although Jack Welch is "the
celebrated leader
of a global manufacturer often noted for its technological prowess, he has
utilized a very human process to
drive change
through GE's vast organization. Having respect for the individual as a
pivotal force in organizational change,
Welch created a model of exceptional performance every corporate leadercan learn from.

The Role of the Leader in the
New Economy

As Jack Welch wrote in a letter to
shareholders: "In the old culture, managers got their power from secret
knowledge: profit margins, market share, and all that... In the
new economy,
the role of the leader is to express a
vision,
get buy-in, and implement it. That calls for open, caring relations with
every employee, and face-to-face communication. People who can't
convincingly articulate a vision won't be successful. But those who can will
become even more open – because success breeds self-confidence."

Welch moves from meeting to meeting, conveying
that message – and the host of other ones as well, some of which have become
his trademarks:3

Business is simple.

Don't make it overly complicated.

Face reality.

Don't be afraid of change.

Fight bureaucracy.

Use the brains of your workers.

Discover who has the best ideas, and put
those ideas into practice.

Employee
Empowerment

Under Welch's leadership, managers
had wide latitude in building their GE units in
entrepreneurial fashion. Determined to harness the collective power of
GE employees, Jack Welch redefined also relationships between boss and
subordinates. He wrote: "The individual is the fountainhead of
creativity
and innovation, and we are struggling to get all of our people to accept the
countercultural truth that often the best way to manage people is just to
get out of their way. Only by
releasing the energy and fire of our employees
can we achieve the decisive, continuous productivity advantages that will
give us the freedom to compete and win in any business anywhere on the
globe."

In his book 'Jack: Straight from the Gut',
Welch is both storyteller and coach, using
his exceptional career as the backdrop to share his thoughts on what it
takes to be a great leader. Part management text, part page-turner, Jack
shows how the man widely regarded as the finest corporate executive of his
generation built his business and his reputation.

You’ll learn in the executive summary of his
book prepared by
Soundview
that:

It’s best to be small, no matter how
big you are. By slashing unneeded bureaucracy and insisting that
GE’s businesses be in the top two positions in their respective fields,
Welch instilled an entrepreneurial spirit and a quick-thinking,
quick-moving approach to competition and constant improvement. It was a
small-company approach to running an enormous, multi-billion-dollar
organization, and it worked marvelously.

It’s all about people.
Jack Welch’s passion was making people GE’s core competency, and he saw
to it that the company found and developed great people.

Companies must be boundaryless to
unlock their potential. Insular thinking results in stale ideas
and, consequently, stale organizations. By breaking down the walls and
borders that separated various departmental and functional areas at GE,
Welch was able to
unlock the full creativity of his people, propelling the company
forward with fresh, creative approaches to problems.